A wind gust of 80 miles per hour was recorded at the Blue Hills Observatory early Thursday morning, StormTeam 5 meteorologist Mike Wankum said.

Several trees across the region were brought down by the winds. Route 16 in Wellesley was closed for a few hours in both directions after a tree fell on a power line.

Route 114 in Peabody was closed mid-morning when several utility poles were brought down by the high winds.

Greg Deschenes, of Drew Mortgage Associates, saw the poles come down.

"It was crazy. There was pandemonium all over the place. You hear four or five big crashes and then you saw loose bolts and cars were going by literally as the poles were falling," he said. "Just really lucky that everyone survived and no one got hurt."

In Boston, a tree fell and crushed a car on Blue Hill Avenue.

"I heard it, but I thought it was the wind, but when I came and looked out front at the bus stop and that's when I (saw) the tree on the car," one witness said.

Junior Rozado's father owns the now-crushed pick-up. A friend called this morning to tell him what had happened.

"I don't understand how the wind knocked it down," he said. "We just got the truck like a month and a half ago. It's brand new."

A billboard came crashing down on two vehicles parked at Roxbury Motors on Columbus Avenue in Roxbury.

A massive tree toppled on the roof of home in Webster, and branches shot through the home's windows. The residents, who were home at the time, were not harmed.

National Grid said about 29,000 of its customers are without electricity, and NStar reports that about 5,400 of its customers are without power. Western Mass. Electric Co. is reporting nearly 3,100 outages, and Unitil has nearly 900.

The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning from Wednesday at 10 p.m. through Thursday at 9 a.m. Steady winds from the southwest at 20 to 30 mph were forecast, with gusts up to 60 mph.

National Grid spokesman David Graves says they have extra crews coming in, along with extra tree crews to clear any debris. Extra crews are also on call for southeastern Massachusetts, the Merrimack Valley and North Shore.

Nstar spokesman Mike Durand says the utility has activated their emergency response plan and has placed crews throughout the region and extra support staff in service centers.